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Ecclesia took out $1 million loan in February 2017, backed by properties bought with GIF help | Arkansas Blog:
"According to county property records, Ecclesia College took out a $1 million loan from Centennial Bank on February 28, 2017. The loan was backed by two properties that Ecclesia had purchased in 2013. Those properties were aided by nearly $700,000 in public General Improvement Fund (GIF) money, directed by ten legislators in 2013 and 2014.
Two days after Ecclesia took out the loan, on March 2, Oren Paris III, then the president of the college, was indicted, along with former state Rep. Micah Neal and former state Sen. Jon Woods, accused of participating in a kickback scheme to funnel GIF money to the college. Paris and Neal eventually pleaded guilty; Woods was found guilty on 15 of 17 counts earlier this month.
I asked Ecclesia College spokesperson Angie Snyder about this loan: What was the money spent on? Was it used to reduce other mortgages? Was any of it used in the criminal defense of Paris or in the civil litigation against the college stemming from an FOIA request related to the GIF documents? She has not replied.
I also contacted Travis Story at the Story Law Firm, which represented Paris after his criminal indictment and Ecclesia in the FOIA case. He has not responded.
The two properties that secured the loan are 4095 Highway 112 and 3870 Als Drive. Those are the two tracts, totaling nearly 50 acres, that the GIF money at the center of the scandal was allotted for.
The school purchased the 25.5 -acre property listed as 4095 Highway 112 in November of 2013 for $500,000. The school later received $200,000 in public money in 2014 to help pay for that property, all of it directed by Woods and Neal.
Ecclesia purchased the 23-acre property listed as 3870 Als Drive in December of 2013 for $675,000. The school received $492,500 in public money in 2013 and 2014 to help pay for it. Woods directed $200,000 of that. "
Read more about Ecclesia here on the Arkansas Blog.
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